Nice.

Yesterday publisher Abylight confirmed that it is working with renowned indie coder Juan Antonio Becerra - better known as Locomalito - to bring his amazing collection of titles to consoles.

These games - which include Maldita Castilla, Hydorah, L'Abbaye des Morts, Gaurodan and The Curse of Issyos - have been produced in Becerra's spare time, and have so far been made available for free on PC and other platforms. The deal with Abylight will see these games come to consoles for the first time, presumably with a price tag attached. The first candidate for porting is the superb Maldita Castilla, which is best described as a spiritual sequel to Capcom's Ghouls 'n Ghosts. It's coming in Q3 this year.

These will be more than just direct ports, however - we can expect bonus materials with each release as well as gameplay revisions to suit console play.

Here's what Becerra had to say about the news:

From the beginning, my goal as Locomalito has been the creation and circulation of "new classic games". However, being a personal project, the amount of time and resources needed to publish in major consoles has always been a significant drawback to balance with the creative process. That's why consoles have been an impossible scenario so far, but now I finally found in Abylight an approachable and experienced team of professionals that understand the philosophy behind my games and is able to help me take them beyond my personal means.

Naturally, we probed Abylight regarding a possible Nintendo release of Maldita Castilla, and the publisher confirmed to us that it is aware that "many voices" are being raised for a 3DS port:

We are currently working with all major Platform owners to spread Locomalito's work as broad as possible. No final decision has been made regarding Nintendo consoles, and many voices are being raised for a Nintendo 3DS version.

Are you an existing fan of Locomalito's body of work, or is this the first time you've heard of him? Let us know either way by posting a comment below.